Advice About Writing Competitons

I was thinking today about submitting writing to competitions.

I currently have a story in a competition. The only problem is, I'm not organised at all, and I forgot not only when the closing date was, but also when they were supposed to notify the winners. So I am stuck with a story that I can't send out until I find out if I won the competition.

That's where my advice comes in. If you happen to be like me, I say wait six months after you have submitted the story, then it's probably okay to submit it somewhere else. Another option is to search the internet and try to find out when the notification date was. Or, you could Google your name (I read this in a writing magazine recently) and maybe the winners of the competition will be posted somewhere.

If you aren't conceited, and you're thinking, "I probably didn't win, anyway," think again, just to be sure. I know from experience, because I have the same poem published in two different books! That was a big oops. And now, I can only ever cite one of the books as being published in, just in case.